Our Own Way Out
by DustBunnyGC
Summary: Takes place in a universe where the Tamers are the children of the digidestined. Takato had thought his biggest problem was Takeru Takaishi trying to flirt with his mother, but of course fate had to rear its head. Thrust into a new world his Mother and Uncle once braved, he must find his own path out, with the help of his strange new friends.
1. Chapter 1

Hi everyone! Thanks for clicking on the story. Just some important things to clear up before the story:

-Takato is Kari's son, so is that kid from the canon epilogue.

-Rika is Mimi's daughter

-Kenta is Joe's son

-The kids from the canon epilogue at the end of 02 are here, and integral to the story

The rest still have their canon parent/parents

Hope you all enjoy! :D

—

The park lit up with the golden lights of lanterns and fireflies bouncing in the light summer breeze. Colorful party streamers connected the trees together into a circle of rainbows surrounding a few festival stalls. A lavender colored streamer came loose from one the trees and landed on the top of a festival food stall, selling delicious smelling candy apples. The night sky was aglow with stars that danced in the sky and brought the bright starlight to the earth. The sound of giggles and pleasant conversations filled the air.

Takato sighed, content for once. Today was July thirty-first, the night before the anniversary of his mother's trip to the digital world. He was relaxed against a park bench, watching the chosen children- well, adults trying to win as many stuffed animals as possible.

Matt and Uncle Taichi seemed to be in some kind of competition of who could win the most. His mom called it 'displaying dominance to assert themselves as the alpha'. Whatever that meant. Another chosen, Ken, shook his head at the two while conversing with the leader of his mothers team, Davis.

The people in the festival gave the chosen small gifts as their thanks sometimes. Takato got gifts occasionally, but mostly Akira and the kids that had partners got gifts.

Without a digimon partner, you didn't get too much attention.

Akira's trip to the digital world was tomorrow, Takato recalled, the detail faintly registering. He'd be staying with one of his Mom's seniors: Mimi Tachigawa, as well as her daughter Rika. Joe Kido, the eldest of all the chosen, also had his son Kenta staying with them. Rika, Kenta, and Takato were the only ones without a digivice or a partner.

It was... hard. Takato had always wanted a digimon partner to befriend, but it seemed the world didn't have it in store for him. It was painful to watch his brother and the other new chosen playing and laughing with their partners when he knew he'd never have that relationship. He wondered... had he done something wrong to warrant not being able to have a partner? Was he not good enough?

He shook his head, not wanting to get lost in depressing thoughts. He takes a deep breath and dismisses the pain in his chest, deciding to focus on the festival once again.

"Takato?" His mother's gentle voice broke through his thoughts. She placed a hand on his back lightly. "Are you holding up alright?"

"Mm-hm," Takato nodded his head, focusing on his legs swinging back and forth, occasionally hitting the hard metal legs of the bench he sat on.

"I got you something," She said, pulling a stuffed animal she'd probably won from beside her. She sets it down in his lap.

It's a little red dragon with a white belly.

"Is it a digimon stuffed animal?" Takato asks, curious.

"It's not an official one..." She glances off to the side. "But I think he'd make a good digimon."

Takato smiled softly in return. "What would he be called?"

"How about BlazingDragonLizardmon?" Another voice asks.

"TK! Kari, he's making fun of digimon names!" Patamon flaps his wing-ears, clearly aggravated at the tease.

Instead of scolding TK Takaishi, Kari just giggles along with him.

"How about RedDinoFiremon?"

"Kari not you..." a catlike voice drawls from a nearby bush.

The two of them laugh together for a moment.

'I hope they don't start looking into each other's eyes longingly,' Takato thinks, begrudgingly accepting that TK Takaishi would flirt with his mother. It was basically a universal fact at this point. 'What if... no, she wouldn't- it's way too late.'

"Maybe you should come over for dinner?"

'...no way.'

TK grins. "I was hoping you'd ask. I would even go to your mothers place to eat right now.' He sits beside Kari, and inches closer.

'I don't think I'm qualified to be apart of this discussion.' Takato thinks, belatedly.

Kari gasps, mock dramatic. "But you can't! I could never lose you to such a fate!"

They continue with their flirting charades for a while before Takato finally tries to escape.

"Oh, Takato!" TK says, almost surprised. "I'm sorry, I didn't even say hi." He rubs the back of his neck, looking a bit bashful for a guy who'd just been making eyes at his mother for ten minutes straight.

"It's okay Mr. Takaishi," He responds.

"Mr. Takaishi? That makes me sound so old..."

"Really? I think it suits you." His mom adds.

TK was silent for a second before his cheeks gained a bit of color. "You think?"

Takato speed walks away, deciding that staying to witness the rest would be classified as self harm. He walks away from the noise of the festival, and into the park. It's way too dark for Takato to see, save for the occasional street light, but anything is better then the chaotic noise of the festival.

He barely registers his feet touching the ground. Takato only realizes how far he's gone when his sneaker catches on a crack and he face plants onto the hard sidewalk.

"Stupid..." He mutters, rubbing his nose and feeling blood. "Just what I wanted, a bloody nose. Thanks. I just... thank you, so much." He gestures up at the sky sarcastically, as if sassing the stars themself.

He gets on his knees and begins to prop himself up, before realizing he's missing a crucial aspect.

"RedFlamingLizardmon?" He calls, then cringes in embarrassment. "Right, not calling you that."

He feels around for the little dragon, thankful for the dim light of nearby street lamp. Spotting a flash of muted red in the corner of his vision, he turns to find the tail of the stuffie sticking out of a overgrown bush along the side of the path. It is almost entirely obscured by leaves.

Sighing in relief, Takato crawls toward the tail. He reaches in, and gently takes the tail, tugging the dragon out. His hand brushes against hard stone under the bush as the little dragon flops out.

"That's..." he says aloud.

'Odd...' Takato finishes mentally.

He sits on the road for a second, before a brief yolo sensation passes over him. He shrugs, and crawls into the bush.

On the other side is a cracked stone pathway, forgotten by time.

"Woah... This could be an awesome secret hideout." Takato says, presumably to the stuffed toy. "I should tell Rika. She'd like it."

He continues up the stairs, weary of slipping on some of the less grounded areas of the climb.

When Takato reaches the top, he is not disappointed. An old stone supply shed stands sturdy. It's rusted gates leave nothing secret, when Takato peers through them.

Something glimmered. Takato gasped in excitement, and pried open the gate, who's old age was no match for an excited ten-year-old.

Stepping inside, he is rewarded with the dense smell of wet moss and dirt, as well as the dripping of water droplets. That's not what he's focused on though. In the center of the shed, there floated a small sparkling rift that secreted rainbow colored pixels.

"No way..." Takato gasps. It was tiny, not even the size of his new dragon friend, but it was a portal. A portal to the very place his mother had made it her mission to protect. The Digital World.

Surely, it wouldn't hurt just to touch it...

His hand seemed to move on its own, the light of the portal illuminating it the closer it came.

It was so close... his hand almost glowing with the light.

He hesitates. Maybe he should tell the adults?

He takes a step back, and slowly starts withdrawing his hand.

The portal however, doesn't like this.

Takato falls backwards against the gate, as the portal begins to howl like a crazed wounded animal. It distorts and shrinks and grows and takes over the entire wall of the shed.

Takato screams.

It's too late.

He has already been swept away.

—

If you enjoyed, please leave a review! Thanks for the read!


	2. Chapter 2: More or less a digidestined

Hi again! Sorry for the long unannounced hiatus.

-we are finally introduced to the season 2 epilogue kids

-some digimon show up to say hi

—

Takato awoke to his face pressed flat against cold stone. Hastily he sat up, and then groaned and rubbed his eyes as the blood rushed to his head.

When the spots in his vision cleared, it took everything in his power not to let his jaw drop.

He stood on the floor of a gigantic room. His house could've fit in the room a billion times over. The ceilings were higher than the largest skyscraper in the city stacked on top of itself twice. The crystal walls glimmered a pale light blue, twinkling like starlight. The ceiling had intricately decorated windows which daylight poured through, making the crystal walls sparkle and created little light rainbows.

In center of the room was an equally large pearl colored table. The table itself, well spectacular, was not what Takato immediately focused on.

At the table, sat three figures, large as Uncle Tai says Omnimon is.

They were having an argument.

"Too young-"

"Not much time-"

"We need to wait-"

"When's lunch break-"

Bits and pieces of the conversation flitted down to Takato.

Suddenly, the noise from the table was silenced. The bright outline of a figure stood, the one closest to him. When they stood, many pairs of glorious wings caught the rainbow of light. Glistening blue and gold armor was soundless as they strode towards Takato.

They knelt down.

Their eyes were obscured by their helmet.

"Angewomon?" Takato asked the digimon.

The digimon laughed, the sound ringing through the room. She had a clear, genuine laugh, while still seeming gentle. It reminded Takato of his mother.

"I'm afraid not," she said. Not-Angewomon reached out one of her hands. "Come here, won't you?"

The human hesitated.

"I will not hurt you, I swear on my digicore." She said.

Takato nodded, and stepped onto her hand.

He nearly fell when she stood, holding on for dear life until she finally came to a stop.

Red eyes opened(he hadn't even noticed that he'd squeezed them shut), as he was gently placed on top of the pure colored table.

He turns, and sees two other figures. A giant rabbit that looked like a magical girl jester, and a grumpy looking male version of the digimon who'd carried him to the table.

"Welcome, chosen one. I am Ophanimon, one of the defenders and leaders of the digital world,"

His eyes widened.

"...Ophanimon? I... have we met before?"

Ophanimon expression flashed briefly to something Takato didn't recognize. Boy-Ophanimon began to cough loudly, and the rabbit snickered.

"...No, I don't believe we have. Anyways-"

"We were just about to send you home. I'm Seraphimon, by the way," The male armored angel said, interrupting Ophanimon.

"...oh, okay," Takato was a little confused to why he'd been sucked here in the first place.

"No! Uh.. No, you aren't leaving quite yet," Ophanimon slid in.

Seraphimon pinched where Takato imagines the bridge of his nose would be, if the top half of his face wasn't covered in helm.

"We went over this Ophanimon,"

"It's the only way,"

"He's ten!"

Ophanimon huffed, frowning at him. "The chosen were eleven,"

"We had no choice in the matter!"

"The three must act. It is the only way and you know it,"

The ten-year-old watching all of this go down had a combined feeling of seeing something important and not comprehending it and not understanding anything whatsoever.

Whatever Ophanimon had said made Seraphimon agitated, but he had backed down.

Ophanimon once again turned her attention to Takato, looking down at his position on the table.

"Young one, I have a gift for you," Her wings spread elegantly, blocking off his view almost entirely. Gently, she tapped one finger, her pinky, to his chest. An odd feeling spread in his shoulders and throat. It wasn't a bad feeling, just unorthodox.

"Take mine as well," Seraphimon held a closed fist towards him, and slowly opened it, revealing a small object that floated towards Takato.

It was a small sketchbook and a set of crayons.

"Crayons?" Ophanimon said, seemingly just as surprised.

"He wanted give him a taser," The rabbit cut in, on the verge of laughter.

"Cherubimon, calm yourself," The heavenly woman ordered. "What have you prepared for your gift?"

Cherubimon blinked. "Was I supposed to bring a gift?"

The two angel digimon groaned.

"We told you this in the previous meeting!" Seraphimon exclaimed, once again pinching were the bridge of his nose would of been.

"You know I never pay attention! You guys can't just email this stuff to me?"

"Digimon have email?" Takato questioned.

"No," Ophanimon said.

"Yes," Seraphimon said.

"Wait! I think I have something," The large pink rabbit bent below the table and proceeded to rustle around.

"Takato, you were right to think that you aren't like your family and the other chosen." Ophanimon's wings spread wide, catching the light and shining like a newly born star. "But you aren't ordinary,"

The brunette stepped back. "How did you..?"

"I don't want you to approach this like your family did, alright? You may feel tempted to imitate them, but we chose you for a reason. We want you to be yourself. Not Taichi, not Kari." Her voice echoed.

"W-what do you mean? What am I supposed to do?" He meant to demand, but his voice quivered.

"You aren't _supposed_ to do anything. You are to try your best." She ended on a strange note, her feathers ruffling as her wings dropped to a resting position. She smiled, and leaned forward, resting her face on her hand with her elbow on the table.

"Good luck, little tamer,"

"Got it!" Cherubimon exclaimed, resurfacing from underneath to table. He shoved an object towards Takato.

Takato looked at it, dumbfounded.

"A... DS?" Of all things, not what Takato had expected.

"Actually, it's a DDS."

Takato looked at Cherubimon, before the large digimon sighed.

"... a digi-DS,"

The ten year old snorted, and covered his mouth in attempt to stop the laughter.

"Okay, Seraphimon gave it crayons and I'm crazy?"

"As much fun as this is," Seraphimon began, speaking up from his long silence.

"It's time for you to get back home," Ophanimon finished.

Takato's vision became obscured with light.

'Can't this place ever tone down the brightness?' He thinks. 'It's hard to see.'

"Good luck!" He hears a woman yell.

"Be safe," a man says.

"Don't die, that'd be a wasted DDS." Another male voice says.

Next thing he knows he's lying on the dirt floor of the stone shed. The portal sparks mischievously, and disappears.

"Okay, what just happened?" he asks no one. He sits up, and once again receives the same nausea he'd gotten when he'd awoken in the crystalline room. "Urgh,"

'I need to drink more water,' The brunette thinks absently.

Standing up, he realizes he's scraped his hands and face on the wall. Takato prods one of the scratches gingerly and is rewarded with an immediate stinging sensation.

"Well, this has been great," Takato says aloud.

His Mom would flip when she...

His Mom.

Oops.

He rushes out the shed and down the broken stairway, panicking.

'How long have I been gone?'

'Has she already left for the digital world?'

He dives straight through the bushes, and immediately bumps into a pedestrian.

"S-Sorry!" He blurts.

The pedestrian catches him by the shoulders, and Takato sees that the pedestrian is actually TK Takaishi.

"Takato? Where have you been?...and why are you so beat up?" The older man asks, his hands still around Takato's shoulders, keeping him still.

Takato's mind blanks for a second, and he sees TK narrow his eyes suspiciously over his shoulder into the bush.

"TK!" A bubbly voice shouts. "You found him!" Patamon lands on his partners head, smiling.

The blond looked at Takato, and the hands on his shoulders grow lighter. "Yeah," He says. "Patamon, you don't mind finding Kari, do you?"

Patamon groans, but flaps his wings and flies off into the other direction.

"Was I... um, gone for long?" The smaller boy asks.

"No, just fifteen minutes. Long enough for your Mother to get nervous,"

"I just wanted to go for a walk, a fresh of breath air, and I fell over into the bush."

None of those statements were lies. He had gone for a walk. He had fallen over. He had gone into the bush.

TK sighed, but didn't press further. He lifted his hands off Takato's shoulders, and stood to his full height. Takato hadn't even realized he'd been leaning down.

At least they weren't doing that weird shoulder touch thing. It was starting to look dangerously close to TK hugging him.

"Sweetheart?" His Mother's gentle voice called through the trees. She looked a little ruffled, but was otherwise normal. "I was almost worried! Don't run off like that!" She chided. She ended up stopping her light jog next to TK.

"Sorry Mom," He says, looking down, feeling a little guilty.

She took his hand, and the three of them walked back to the festival.

The younger brunette looked up at his mother, who smiled at TK, eyes crinkling. It would be so easy to tell her... but Takato wasn't even sure what he'd seen had been real. Wouldn't be embarrassing for his Mom if he made her chase a dead end daydream?

"Takato, honey, where's your dragon?" She asks, cutting through his thoughts.

Takato stopped walking.

The dragon hadn't been in the shed. Hadn't been in the bush. Hadn't been on the stairway or the street.

He must of left it in the crystalline room.

Takato wasn't stupid. Things didn't just disappear. then, that room... those angels...

"Did Taichi win that for you?" TK asks, pointing to the object in Takato's hand.

Seraphimon's sketchbook.

"No," he says instinctively. "I had it before,"

"You look kind of pale,"

"I don't get a lot of sun," he responds.

"Takato..." Kari scolds lightly.

The golden light of the festival once again engulfs Takato. The light is gentle against his eyes, and he relaxes a little.

"I think we should probably head home," His Mom told TK. "Are you still coming to dinner?"

"Actually, I'll have to give you a rain check. I..." his eyes flutter so briefly over at Takato, he thinks he might of imagined it. "-Have to check in with Ken and Davis about something."

"Oh," His mothers disappointment was visible. "Next time?"

"Of course. Don't forget, you'll be stuck with me the entire trip!" He grinned, pointing at himself.

Kari giggled. "Oh stop it,"

"Are we leaving?" Takato asks.

"Was about to ask the same thing," His Uncle Taichi said, suddenly appearing beside him with a goofy smile and Akira by his side.

Kari and Tai looked at each other and a silent conversation passed through their eyes.

"Takato, Akira, you're with me!" Tai called.

"How's Mom gonna get home, Uncle Tai?" Akira pulled on his Uncles shirt.

"She'll be getting a ride, don't worry about it," He grinned again, this time at Akira, then at Kari.

On the car ride home Takato plays with the DS. It only has one game on it, called Lords of Dark. It's a ridiculously edgy game, with even edgier characters. The gameplay is not good. Takato doesn't even really want to play it.

"Where'd that come from?" His brother asks. He'd been side eyeing the DS for a while now.

"...I won it."

"Do you want some of my old DS games?"

Takato paused. "Sure, I'd like that."

Truthfully, Takato wouldn't like that. It wasn't that he hated his brother, he just tended to have odd taste in video games. While all the other kids had gotten Sonic and racing games for theirs, Akira had gotten Hello Kitty: Big City Dreams, and numerous eye spy games in DS cartridge forms.

"-And anyway, that's where I keep the leftover Halloween candy from three years ago."

Had Akira been talking the whole time? He tended to be quite chatty, but he was unusually talkative today.

"What games do you have on your video game machine?" The smaller version of Taichi, aka Takato's cousin Haru.

"It's a DS, Haru," Akira answered, snorting.

"It only came with one," He flapped the DS in his hand.

"That's dumb," Haru said. "That can't be fun, why'd you get it?"

"Don't know," Takato answered, wondering the same. "Kind of useless, honestly."

The device would not be useless, Takato would soon find out. For it wasn't just a toy, but an important tool.

—

Sorry for the wait!

Please review if you enjoyed or have any questions :D

I struggled the most with Akira and Haru's personalities in this chapter. I don't really know if they are important to the story yet. The only grasp on the personalities I have for the two are acts strangely/weird(Akira) and annoying little brother character(Haru(little Tai)).

I should update sooner then last time maybe in the next week or so?

Bye! Thanks for reading!


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